One Minor Change
by Reader128
Summary: What if Smecker woke up before Il Duce left Yakavetta's house with the boys? What would change? (Finally uploaded here when I realized it was on AO3 and not here... Also, I don't own anything but forgot to put obligatory disclaimer in the actual document.)


"Boys," the old man stated as he looked down on the young men he now knew to be his sons, "what are you doing here?"

"He's our friend, Da," the one on his right told him, looking back at the dead man in the chair.

The one on his left stood up and helped his brother up, "We need to do something or Papa Joe is going to get away with this."

They all turned when the door slowly opened, and the women he hit stumbled through and looked at them, "Boys, are you alright?"

The two looked at each other before asking, "Smecker?"

"Why are you here?"

"Why do you look like that?"

The man straightened his wig, "I came here to save you once I heard that Yakavetta had all of his hitters here, but someone else got here first."

They looked back at their father and one said, "This is Agent Smecker. He's the FBI agent in charge of the case."

The other finished speaking, "This is our Da… Il Duce." He shrugged, "We just found out."

"We need to catch Papa Joe. We can't let him get away."

Smecker thought for a few moments before starting, "Here's what we're going to do…."

The boys nodded once he finished speaking and started taking off their weapons and Rocco's, one of them helping the other when he had to use his injured hand. Once they handed everything over to their father, the two older men left, taking care not to touch anything on the way out except to clean their own fingerprints from everything they had touched before. Thirty minutes later, Connor called Smecker's cell phone. Another ten minutes passed before Smecker and the police made it to the house to find the two huddled together in a corner in the basement, their friend dead in a chair in the middle of the room, Papa Joe Yakavetta missing despite all of his men lying dead throughout the house, and no pennies anywhere to be seen.

"Connor? Murphy? What are you doing here?" Dolly asked.

"What happened?" Greenly spoke.

"They took us off the street," Connor told them shakily. "We were walking back to Rocco's house when they came up. They wanted him… said he'd betrayed them and needed to pay, brought us back here. Said Roc'd killed those people in the deli."

"They wanted him to talk, confess to killing Vincenzo, but he didn't... said he didn't. Papa Joe shot him," Murphy replied, cradling his arm and letting tears fall as he looked at his friend.

"Are either of you hurt?" Duffy asked them, moving towards Murphy.

"His hand is broken," Connor told them, keeping his arm wrapped around Murphy's shoulder. "I had to... we needed to get out of the cuffs. That one came back in to hurt us again. We had to get loose and it was the only way…."

"We blocked the door," Murphy finished, "and waited until we couldn't hear anything else before we tried to open it again. We didn't know if they were going to send anyone else in, but when we opened the door, they were all dead. We didn't see anyone else here. We called Smecker… he told us to come back in here and stay until he got here…."

Seeing the boys so shaken, the officers led them outside to a waiting ambulance. Smecker sent Duffy with them to finish getting their statements and collect evidence from them. He then gathered everyone else, "I want this entire house gone over with a fine toothed comb. I don't want a single piece of evidence missed. We'll be here as long as we have to be. Chaffey, get an APB out on Papa Joe Yakavetta. I want him found before sunrise." Smecker walked around the house, seeing everything he missed the first time and piecing together everything he was going to write up in his report and what details he was going to fudge just a bit to make them fit. Luckily, the boys' story didn't have to change much from the real thing. With their statements and everything in the house, including several weapons that had been used, maybe he could finally put Yakavetta away. It was an amazing consolation prize since he couldn't see himself arresting the boys any time soon.

Sunrise saw Smecker walking into the boys' hospital room. Murphy had a cast on his arm, and both boys had bandages wrapped around their ribs and on various other wounds. They were both ready for news. Thankfully, he had some to give.

"Yakavetta was arrested an hour ago. They're holding him without bail until this trial."

"What's going to happen now?"

"He'll go to trial in a few weeks. You'll need to testify, but we've got enough evidence even without you two to put him away. It'll be easier to counter his arguments if you're there though."

They didn't even have to look at each other to know the answer, "We'll be there."

"It'll be dangerous for you two to stay in the city once word gets out that you're going to testify. Yakavetta will send everything he's got after you."

"We can handle ourselves."

"Maybe so, but you need to keep up your saintly image. We're going to put you up in a safe house just outside the city. I'll have Dolly, Duffy, and Greenly staying with you."

"What about Da?"

"We just found him. We want to find out why we're just now knowing him."

"I'll see if I can add him. You'll have to be careful though. The others don't know who he is."

"We'll keep an eye out," Connor told him.

"Just make sure Papa Joe doesn't get away this time," Murphy added, leaning back into the bed. "We'll lay low until the trial."


End file.
